Box score

In what classifies as the head-scratching play of the day, Kansas University’s football team faked a punt on a fourth-and-13 call from its own 16 with the score tied 10-10 in the second quarter of Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener against Texas Tech in Memorial Stadium.

The Jayhawks’ Trevor Pardula stumbled for no gain against an alert Tech defense, drawing groans from the stands as the Red Raiders needed just two plays to break the deadlock and open the floodgates in a 54-16 victory.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “This is a big game. They knew, I think, (that) they would have to make some plays and do some things out of the ordinary. I thought our guys did a good job.

“They (KU coaches) must have seen something on film that looked like it would have been there. I thought our guys did a good job staying at home and making a play.”

Tech freshman quarterback Baker Mayfield, who broke the tie by scoring on a 19-yard run with 5:13 left in the half, completed 33 of 51 passes for 368 yards, no touchdowns and one interception before suffering a right knee injury late in the third quarter.

His prospects of playing soon didn’t look promising as he left for the locker room on crutches in the fourth quarter.

“If he can’t go ... next man up. I don’t know who that’ll be yet,” said Kingsbury, who did not report the extent of the injury. “I thought Davis (Webb, 3-of-6 passing for 36 yards and two TDs) did some good things. Brewer (Michael) got a couple snaps. We just ran it with him (in the game). We’ll see. We may have another situation we have to figure out. I don’t have answers right now until we know exactly what is wrong with Baker.”

“It was a point of emphasis all week: ‘Hey, that’s what they (Jayhawks) are seeing on film. What are you going to do (about it)?’ They (Raiders defense) stepped up to the challenge,” Kingsbury said.

“That was one of the things we were harping on coming in,” Texas Tech linebacker Will Smith said. “We said, ‘This is not the same defense as last year so let that be known pretty early.’ We felt we did a good job.”

KU came out throwing the football.

“After we stopped the run pretty quick, that was the best thing for them to try to do,” Smith said. “They got after us a little bit. We made a few changes and corrected ourselves.”

As far as spotting KU the 10-0 lead before scoring 54 unanswered points: “Sometimes it takes awhile to get started because you are just waking up (for 11 a.m. game),” said receiver Eric Ward, who had seven catches for 122 yards and a TD. “Getting started is the hardest part. When we get in our groove and get things going, we’re on a roll.”

“They were pretty excited,” Smith said of the Jayhawks (2-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12). “It was their homecoming, an early-morning game. Once everything settled down and we settled down and communicated, things went smoothly.”

Comments

Literally, before the snap of the ball, I said to my wife: why do they still have their starting QB in the game?

Giving the punter the option to make a fake punt decision in that part of the field is simply bad coaching. He needed 13, I think, to get the 1st down. We were still in the game and first down there still leaves us with roughly 60 yards to go. An awful, awful ply.

That was a big hot steaming pile of a mess out there today. Weis owns it and he needs to fix it. Guaranteed prediction for next home game? Less than 30,000 actual fans in the stadium.

"Weis owns it" The problem is that Weis does not take complete responsibility for his team and the absolutely stupid play calling. He always comes up blameless, which is shameful. Take responsibility for your team.